Tbh I'm shocked we haven't taken a risk on Peter Mueller. Injury prone but loads of upside. Keep him on the 4th line for most games and let him slide into the top 6 in case of injury. The fact that he can play both center and RW should be very helpful in that regard. He has played center before, so if RNH doesn't start the season, we can slot him on the 2nd line and cross our fingers.

I also wouldn't mind the team re-signing Smithson at this point. Sure he's just a faceoff/hit bot, but we missed the boat on a couple good 4th line centers like Maxim Lapierre and Matt Hendricks. I'd much rather have some competition for the 4th line center spot then just hand it to an unproven guy like Lander, or a career AHLer like Acton. Unless we can pick up someone like Zack Smith/Ryan Carter in return for Hemsky, our center depth looks puke worthy.

Playing an offence only 1 dimensional player with a defence only 1 dimensional player is a disaster waiting to happen. The fact that they're both soft as pillows doesn't help either. One of these players fills a major need, the other is completely redundant, I think I'll keep the pillow that we need. If the Oilers want to be competitive, Ales Hemsky cannot be on the team when the puck drops in October, and instead we should have some actual bottom 6 forwards who can play physical/defensive hockey there.

Tbh I'm shocked we haven't taken a risk on Peter Mueller. Injury prone but loads of upside. Keep him on the 4th line for most games and let him slide into the top 6 in case of injury. The fact that he can play both center and RW should be very helpful in that regard. He has played center before, so if RNH doesn't start the season, we can slot him on the 2nd line and cross our fingers.

I also wouldn't mind the team re-signing Smithson at this point. Sure he's just a faceoff/hit bot, but we missed the boat on a couple good 4th line centers like Maxim Lapierre and Matt Hendricks. I'd much rather have some competition for the 4th line center spot then just hand it to an unproven guy like Lander, or a career AHLer like Acton. Unless we can pick up someone like Zack Smith/Ryan Carter in return for Hemsky, our center depth looks puke worthy.

I agree but I would like to give lander more playing time, perhaps the Oilers are waiting to resign smithson before they see if they can get something with Hemsky. Mueller would be good risk but it may be the case that his fitness isn't regarded well or maybe he has an attitude or perhaps Mueller said he wasn't interested in Edmonton.

Here's a kind of deal that may be mutually beneficial for two franchises. How about an, "Our garbage for your garbage" hockey deall?

DEAL 1:

To Columbus:
Ales Hemsky

To Edmonton:
Jackson Johnson

DEAL 2:

To Buffalo:
Nick Schultz

To Edmonton:
Patrick Kaleta

Oilers get a 2nd unit powerplay guy who can play mid to bottom pairing minutes with Ferrence in Jack Johnson. Nick Schultz... I'd be happy to get anything for him and would be thrilled to get a third-line-shift-disturber in Kaleta.

Buffalo will most likely not let go of Kaleta, but here's a sampling of him:

Here's a kind of deal that may be mutually beneficial for two franchises. How about an, "Our garbage for your garbage" hockey deall?

DEAL 1:

To Columbus:
Ales Hemsky

To Edmonton:
Jackson Johnson

DEAL 2:

To Buffalo:
Nick Schultz

To Edmonton:
Patrick Kaleta

Oilers get a 2nd unit powerplay guy who can play mid to bottom pairing minutes with Ferrence in Jack Johnson. Nick Schultz... I'd be happy to get anything for him and would be thrilled to get a third-line-shift-disturber in Kaleta.

Buffalo will most likely not let go of Kaleta, but here's a sampling of him:

My gosh.... what a puke. I love him already.

Jack Johnson is far from junk. No way we get him for Hemsky straight up.

In fairness to myself, I did call it a garbage for garbage swap. Kaleta won't be getting us Stanley Cups any time soon, but if any of our kids get run by Lucic, we'd have at least one guy to step up to the plate and fight him (win or lose... most likely get beaten)

Kaleta is a piece of garbage and can't even play hockey. Nothing but one giant liability that will do nothing but put targets on our skilled players because he is such a cheap player who tries to injure others. NO.

Absolutely not to Patrick Kaleta, we need to be purging team cancers, not adding them. We finally managed to get rid of Belanger and Whitney, and look like we can finally dump Hemsky to a team like New Jersey. Acquiring Kaleta gives us a player who's a bigger negative influence than all 3 of those lazy floaters combined.